President Donald Trump signed executive actions to advance approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline today (January 24th), undoing the policies enacted by the Obama Administration. In November of 2015, the fourth phase of Keystone was rejected. In November of 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers denied DAPL’s easement through Lake Oahe. Now, both are expected to continue.

Despite the violent implications of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the lives of indigenous people and the state of the environment, the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) currently holds bonds in the two primary companies operating the Dakota Access Pipeline: Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics.

Additionally, the University of California continues to invest billions of dollars in companies with high fossil fuel reserves. Fossil Free UC is calling on the University to divest their holdings from the top 200 fossil fuel companies and to develop a reinvestment plan that is both adjusted for climate risk and socially responsible-- thereby upholding the mission of the university.

As the largest and premier public university system in the world, the University of California has a meaningful opportunity to set precedent and take a stand against the fossil fuel industry and the oppression of indigenous people. Under a Presidential Administration whose official stance is climate change denial, the defiance of local entities and systems is more important now than ever before. Pulling investments in fossil fuel companies from the General Endowment Pool and pulling bonds in ETC and Sunoco from the UCRP would be a powerful step in the right direction.

Tomorrow, members of Fossil Free Cal and the Students of Color Environmental Collective from UC Berkeley will meet with the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California to discuss systemwide investment policy and the divestment of our funds from sources of oppression and environmental degradation. Please help us bring your voices into that space. Sign this petition so we can show the Chief Investment Officer where you stand.